An international symposium to discuss models, mechanisms and the etiology of perinatal and multigeneration carcinogenesis will be held in Leningrad, USSR, from 31 May to 2 June 1988. Speakers who are recognized multidisciplinary scientists will review progress made by experimental and epidemiological studies in three major areas: perinatal and multigeneration chemical carcinogenesis, perinatal and multigeneration radiation carcinogenesis, and molecular mechanisms of perinatal and multigeneration carcinogenesis. The session on perinatal chemical carcinogenesis will include discussion of classical animal studies and more recent models of transplacental initiation and postnatal promotion, and of multigeneration chemical carcinogenesis. The example of transplacental human carcinogenesis by diethylstilboestrol and newer examples, such as the effects of occupational exposure and chemotherapy, will be discussed. Supporting biochemical and biological mechanisms will also be reviewed. With regard to perinatal radiation carcinogenesis, X-ray studies in animals will be discussed and the epidemiological studies of the effects of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be included; it is envisaged that at least the prospect of a study on the outcome of the Chernobyl accident will be discussed. Identification of critical genes during carcinogenesis is accelerating our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of perinatal carcinogenesis. Identification of activated oncogenes during perinatal carcinogenesis and construction of oncogene-harbouring transgenic mice will be discussed in detail, together with classical germ-cell mutation mechanisms. Finally, extrapolation and integration of finding obtained from animal models on molecular and cellular mechanisms to the human situation will be discussed, and problems associated with the epidemiological approach will be identified. The proceedings will be published in order to summarize the state of the art of perinatal and multigeneration carcinogenesis.